A piece of jewellery can change completely an outfit. It has the power to make a boring blouse eccentric or elegant, it can add something special to a simple dress or it can even make your outfit funny or serious. They can also be a symbol of a bond with a particular memory, person, or place. Every woman has at least one piece of jewellery that reminds her of something. That’s why even the city of Venice has created some precious jewels for women to wear that will remind them of the beauty of the Italian lagoon.
Venetian glass is an art that has a thousand-year-old history, its manufacturing dates back to the 10th century at least and the furnaces used to create such work of art have been a characteristic of the island of Murano since the 13th century, when in 1291 they were moved from the city of Venice to the island to protect not only the city from any possible fire but also to keep safe the secrets of this art. For this reason, the manufacturing of the Venetian glass is authentic to Murano Island, and it can’t be found anywhere else, since the label of authentic Venetian glass is attested only to the objects manufactured and created in this region of Italy by the Venetian master glaziers.
The manufacturing of glass is part of the tradition, culture, and history of Venice and Murano, in particular. It has always been a flourishing trade for “La Serenissima”, the Republic of Venice which was one of the most influential traders in the Mediterranean Sea until 1797 when the republic fell. It was such an important branch of its economics that in the 1200s the Venetians banned the purchase of glass coming from any other region. This permitted this antique art to grow rapidly and to become the symbol of Venice all around the Mediterranean Sea in the first place and later all around the world.
The items created are very luminous and valuable, the perfect combination to give birth to something more than a centrepiece, a glass, a vase, or a goblet. From tradition, long history, luxury, and elegance jewellery is easily created. Easily, in a manner of speaking because jewellery making is everything but easy. The manufacturing of the Murano Glass necklaces and bracelets requires attention, passion, and most of all knowledge, which can only be achieved through hours and hours of workshops and several attempts to reach perfection. The shops (and web stores) of Murano show a wide selection of Venetian glass jewellery, from the more classical to the more modern one. But the process behind these creations is long and precise, and only the most skilful hands can do it. The necklaces and bracelets in certified Murano glass are made of numerous glass beads that are handmade one by one and then assembled by the “impiraresse” (people, mostly women, that put the thread through the singular beads by hand). These beads are made with a technique called “a lume”, which consists in melting glass stems of different colours and diameters in front of a flame at a very high temperature (720°C–1100°C/1328°F–2012°F) while twirling a copper wire to collect the liquified glass and create a bead of glass, whose shape will be given by the skilful hands of the “perlera” (the person, usually a woman, that does this job with precision) and by some brass tools.
Wearing a Murano Glass jewel means wearing a product of fine craftsmanship. These pieces of jewellery are entirely handmade, and they are unique, valuable, and luxurious. They are a symbol of elegance, refinement, and tradition. The history behind them, not only the one regarding their roots but also the more recent one, their process, is represented in their shape and colour, every sign on their surface has a reason and there isn’t a bead identical to another one. The Murano Glass jewellery is a symbol of uniqueness, just as every woman that wears it.
